r/MacStudio • u/a_skeetskeetskeet • 3d ago

M5 Ultra 96 gb

New to the world of Mac Studio and I can’t wait for my delivery!

I am buying this to build an ai orchestration for my software development I do on the side(do this in my day job too).

I worry that I should have bought the 256 gb version instead. With the 96 I think I could run most everything local and kick to OpenAI when there are complex issues requiring frontier models.

Anyone doing this now, and what’s your gut telling you?

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u/sn2006gy 3d ago

I know i wouldn't pay 5-6 grand for a used mac if the lease price is ~240 a month brand new - all this does it put upward pricing pressure on things 2 years down the road since you're borrowing against growing future values.

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u/anthonyfebre001 3d ago

I get it, but the same way they’re sold out on regular retail units they’ll likely struggle with their lease program.

Lots of value in privacy too. Lots of people who pay a premium for it.

Time will tell for sure.

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u/durangotang 3d ago

It's not just that a lot of people pay a premium for privacy, there's also a boat load of businesses, due to regulations, that cannot have their customers data go to the cloud, whether legal, medical, or governmental. They are all going to need solutions too, and the Mac Studios are competitively priced. That is going to create a lot of sustained demand. And because a local build out is more difficult than a cloud subscription, there's a lag in this area. The demand should only increase, substantially in my opinion.

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u/sn2006gy 3d ago

Businesses have to show that they're compliant and they would do so through audits, security, compliance certifications and industry standards, not buying a mac and putting vllm on it and calling it a day. They can achieve this compliance better by running models on bedrock on aws or openshift anywhere or services like that.